The Right ''Cattitude'': A cat eye view

Does a cat really have 9 lives?

Why is the Federal special force of National Security Guards in India called ''Black cat Commandos?''

What makes the cat family so adaptable in wild and domestic environment?

The answers are far more interesting than the questions. Cat is not just a simple word. It carries stealth, sleek, power and cunning within it. These are perhaps the qualities that enable cats to make it almost in any condition. 

A domestic cat is the basic model for understanding feline behaviour. Most of the adaptive powers of a cat discussed here apply in greater capacity to it's wilder cousins like the Lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, panthers and jaguars.

A cat has 9 lives. Thanks to the 'Cat righting reflex'' : a cat's innate ability to orient itself on four feet, whenever it falls. It's flexible spine and tail enables it to follow the law of angular momentum. According to this law, the cat bends it's rear body to achieve a net angular momentum that enables it to somersault. It spreads it's entire body (similar to a parachute) during the fall to increase the 'drag' and slow their fall. 

This is successfully accomplished because of it's light bones, thick fur and flexible muscle; not to forget the well adapted Vestibular canal.

Cats are known for their amazingly quick reflexes. The neural activity and the communication between the neurotransmitters of a cat's brain happen at a lightening speed and before the brain can register, the action has already been completed. Millions of years of evolution have improved the feline neuro physiology to an extent that the cats can perform a scratching reflex in less that 1/50th of a second.

When a cat lands a scratch on you, it usually comes out as an unexpected shock because the time required for senses to translate themselves into action is less than a second.

This is why the national security guards are called ''Black Cat Commandos''. They are taught to master their reflexes to match a cat's.

Cat eyes have a tapetum lucidum that reflects any light entering a cat's retina back into the eye. This increases the scope of sensitivity to dim light, thus giving cats an excellent night vision. 

To add to many of their adaptive capacities, they have an excellent auditory sense. Cats out do dogs and even humans when it comes to sound detection. They can detect sounds ranging from 55-79 khz. Their oute ears are movable and can amplify sounds.

A cat's whiskers are extremely sensitive to touch & vibrations in the environmental stimuli and help them navigate better. To aid with navigation and sensation, cats have dozens of movable whiskers over their bodies, especially their faces. These provide information on the width of gaps and on the location of objects in the dark, both by touching objects directly and by sensing air currents; they also trigger protective blink reflexes to protect the eyes from damage. You can compare cat whiskers to amazing radars that tell the animals everything they need to know about the objects (shape, size, distance and location). 

A cat has been known to stun large predators such as a bear!!! Sounds unbelievably astonishing, doesn't it? Thanks to the quick claw reflexes! A relaxed feline will not have it's claws extended. But the time required to go from a retracted relax to a full blown clawy slap requires perhaps less than an eye blink. A 10 kg cat scaring off a 400 pound bear may seem astonishing but speed and guts can win against brute strength.

Cats are small, but extremely gutsy and open to challenges. They will not prefer to run away from challenges. Their explorative nature will make them risk their lives to stand against a more powerful opponent. The picture below shows the 'real CATTITUDE!''

In spite of all, cats are extremely emotional (just like humans and other animals). Animal behaviorists say that a cat purr itself has the capacity to show more than a hundred emotional shades. If you have a house cat, you will perhaps notice that cats love to cuddle and be cuddled at their own convenience, but the emotional comfort given by these lovely creatures is definitely a feeling worth an experience.

Tigers: The unvanquished striped monarchs

Tiger is not just a word. It is a feeling, a surge of energy and a burst of power. As I try to find words to introduce this beautiful fire beast to the blog readers, I feel I should let the English poet, William Blake do the talking. For once, his poem on the tiger has always been my favourite. 

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 
On what wings dare he aspire? 
What the hand dare seize the fire? 

And What shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet? 

What the hammer? what the chain? 
In what furnace was thy brain? 
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see? 
Did he who made the lamb make thee? 

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye 
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 

---William Blake

Being at the top of food chain requires an altogether different enigma. If one truth is that big cats are on the top of the food chain, another truth is that tigers rule all the big cats. These big cats can weigh up to 450-460 kilograms and have an appearance that can awe the greatest of Gods.

Fierce, terrifying, royal, imposing, graceful and muscular: there are more adjectives than these: but not even the most comprehensive of all dictionaries will have a perfect word  to describe this most awesome animal. It is invincible: in all sense.

Unsurpassed Power

Who else, but the tiger can possess the power of  450 kilos of brute muscle, strong enough to bring down one or perhaps even two adult male buffaloes single handedly? A paw thump can weigh as much as 200 kilos, more than that of a lion which is (150 kgs). A tiger's bite force can be as powerful as 127 bfq whereas that of a lion is 112 bfq. Tigers run at the speed of 85 kmph and are excellent swimmers, making them perfectly adaptable to swamp conditions of the tropical Indian rainforests. They are also adaptable to the slicing Siberian cold and mountain footholds of Nepal. With such malleability, one can almost think that the epitome of all carnivore force is  the tiger- only the tiger

A temperament to die for!

A tiger is not very temperamental and will not attack or behave aggressively just for the fun of it. A tiger prefers solitude. It dislikes noise and commotion and will make sure it's got it's territory. Tigers are known to avoid the company of members of their own species. 

A true gentleman

Unlike the alpha male lions who always have the first and the biggest share of the kill, male tigers are generous givers.  They share their kill with females and cubs. Tigresses do the same. Cubs and other family are given equal importance when it comes to sharing a kill. 

Man eaters

It's no myth that tigers can turn man eaters. This goes true especially for tigers in the Indian sub continent, especially the Sunderbans swamp. It's not the old and debilitated ones, even the young and the agile ones can turn out to be man eaters. The reason is the water of Ganges that engulfs the entire Sunderbans area which carries human corpses and the tigers have gotten used to the taste of human flesh in their regular intake of water. Along with diminishing forest coverage and inhabitance of mankind in their neighbouring regions, it becomes natural for these tigers to become a mortal threat to human life.

Endangered species 

It might sound unbelievable that these invincible machines of claws, jaws and paws face a morbid danger of complete wipe off. However, this is true. Tigers are fast becoming extinct. They face threat from creatures even more nasty and perilous than most forces of nature. These creatures are none other than human beings.

Human beings are known to poach tigers for their skin and nails which have been traded for billions of dollars. This poaching used to be quite rampant till the late twentieth century. Indian monarchs and British governors have been known to kill

Chinese aesculpian field has used tiger parts in traditional medicines as per the age old belief that tiger parts promote cure, enhance virility and replenish body's energy. Today, governments across the world have joined hands to stop poaching for various reasons whatsoever. Tiger breeding and saving projects have been actively undertaken all over the world and to our great happiness, the tiger population over Asia has had a considerable increase since the year 2009.

According to the recent survey, tiger numbers in India have increased from 700-800 to 1706. 

Efforts need to persist on a consistent basis in order to ensure the safety of these magnificent creatures. 

Nature is powerful indeed. If these beautiful fire creatures at the top of the food chain topple, it won't establish human supremacy over nature; rather it shall call for a doom in the natural balance that we humans will have to pay for. Conservation of forests (the natural habitat) is necessary to ensure the tigers live.

The queen's sovereignty: Meticulous planners:

Fierce appearance, an ability to take on any opponent without backing off first, the intelligence to co ordinate and plan a hunt and the virtue of sharing food with family make lions the uundisputed monarchs of the savannah and also my personal favourites

Lions (males) usually leave hunting to the experts: the females, but they too can fend for themselves. It is a misconception that lions hunt in groups. A lone lioness can hunt and do it well. But a pride of lions can hunt and do it extremely well. 

These master planners know that prey does not come easy. The planning comes in a couple of steps which I have highlighted in brief.

Stage 1: STALK: They stealthily stalk the prey while maintaining safe physical distance. It requires a lot of patience. At times, a successful hunt takes 3-4 hours of patience, precision, meticulousness and self confidence.

Stage 2: OBSERVE:  Observing the movement and behaviour of the prey which most of the times moves in herds of thousands is necessary. It helps a lioness mature as a hunter. She'll know which hunting tactics to apply and which not to. Observation is the key to successful hunts. During observations, she (or they) must not give away her intentions to make a kill.

Stage: 3: TAKING POSITION   Lionesses are expert co ordinators within themselves. They usually adopt 3 major strategies to hunt.

a) Ambush (surprise attack in a triangular attack mode, where one chases and the other brings it down)

b) Blitz (a sudden military type attack done in one direction as if breaking through the herd)

c) Seige (attack in a surround where distraction is used as a tool followed by sudden attack)

As shown in the image above, the position is taken by each lioness in a Blitz. The lionesses who form the wings start the attack first followed by the lionesses in the centre.

Stage: 4: THE LAUNCH: The lions may be able to shoot themselves from a resting zero to 60 kmph in about a minute, but they can maintain the maximum speed of 80 kmph only for 300-400 yards and they know it. The launch is the most important part of the hunt. It depends on the ''unknown'' factor that somehow put the prey in the right position, gives the lioness her speed and results in a successful chase. That unknown factor most probably is the combination of confidence and experience.

Stage 5: THE POWER OF MUSCLE AND JAWS:  The chase is on. The prey has been targeted and now, it is the time to bring it down. Bringing it down requires sheer muscle strength because the prey usually outweighs the lions (especially if it is a wildebeest or a giraffe or a cape buffalo). A large male cape buffalo weighs three times the lion and it usually takes 4-5 lions to bring such a big prey down.

The lions have retractable claws that are 1.5 inch long. They can penetrate through any skin or muscle, shredding it mercilessly. A single slap from a lion's muscular paw (150 kilos of brute force) is enough to put a wildebeest or a zebra to the ground. After that the 4 inches canines take over.These impressive physical attributes ensure that life is kicked out of the prey's soul even before the canines have to take over.

Stage 6: A GRAND FEAST TO FINISH OFF  : The lionesses do all the hard work only to let the males have the ''lion's share'' for defending the territory by patrolling and sleeping of course! The lionesses and the cubs have their share too before sleeping it off for 16 hours at a stretch: almost!!!!

Physical attributes are only a pinchful of what can explain why lions have been crowned the KING of the beasts. Very few members of the feline species possess the ability to maintain families and carry out child rearing, family protection and hunts in fine co ordination. 

Delicate Maestro of Speed

Thanks to the new age cameras, we can capture a cheetah running at it's top speed. There was a time when we couldn't. That's what you call as a 114 kph speed. A cheetah fuels from rest point 0 kph to 60 kph in 2 seconds flat!- Not even a Ferrari or a Lamborghini machine can achieve that!

There is more to this fantastic cat that makes it invincible when it comes to speed and agility.

1. A cheetah has long slender legs with lean muscle and strong fibres that make it fit to run. When a cheetah runs, it spends more time in the air than it does on land.

2. Over sized lungs, heart, nostrils and liver  enable a cheetah to take in massive amounts of Oxygen which is needed to maintain a speed of 114 kph for a long time. A cheetah's chest is large and it's heart pumps blood and achieves a cardiac efficiency of 250 -300 beats a minute. Even at rest, a cheetah's heart rate remains 120 bpm.

3. An aerodynamic body (weighs only 60 kilos), with a small head  is perfect for running, less weight means less load on muscles.

4. Tear patches around it's eyes enable controlled light to enter the eyes. The cheetah eyes are equipped with a fantastic night vision power.

5. Un-retractable claws and flat ridged foot pads enable great grip on the ground while running

6. Narrow, almost vertical scapulas (Shoulder blades) & a relatively small collarbone unattached to the shoulder blades enables a cheetah to take long strides and stretch itself long

7. A cheetah has a powerfully flexible tail to maintain balance along with a flexible spinal cord that enables it to stretch, twist and turn. Prey runs unpredictably and a flexible spinal cord makes it easy to change direction in midst of it's flight.
The spinal cord also helps in boosting it's flying start

Being a cheetah, the fastest land animal isn't always a boon. There are downsides to it

Being light weight cats, they have smaller frames that put them in a vulnerable position against larger predators like the lion.

Since they're fast runners, their bodies get so heated up that they need to wait for a long time before they start eating their kill. This time is a curse, especially if a pack of hyenas or a pride of lions is around.

The cheetah must catch it's prey within less than 50 seconds of it's chase because the brains start to heat up dangerously. This is when it needs to rest and can also miss it's prey. A cheetah's run lasts upto 550 yards before it's brain begins to overheat

The maestro of speed is one of my favourites in the cat family.
It is an embodiment of grace, elegance and sexiness.
I have tried compiling as much research as I can from various sources.
It'll be a pleasure to invite more feedback from you readers and compile in as much information as we can.

I'll update this blog with some videos in near future